Egg flat



June 19, 1928.

. N. E. FUNK EGG; FLAT Filed Oct. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet l avwghto'c nelsonF F June 19, 1928. 1,674,430

N. E. FUNK EGG FLAT Filed 001:. 5., 1927 2 Sheets-Shgqt INVENTOR 3]'JYeYso-rz 1? Funk ATTORNEY S Patented June 19, 1928.

UNITED STATES A 1,674,430 PATENT OFFICE.

NELSON E. FUNK, OF MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO FRANK D. BERRY, OFNEW YORK, N. Y.

EGG FLAT.

Application filed October 3, 1927. Serial No. 223,659.

This invention relates to improvements in the art of packing fragilearticles such as eggs and globular articles made of glass or brittlematerial. It is customary in the packing of said articles to place themupon supports projecting from a fiat piece of ma-' terial called a flat,to surround them by walls of cardboard and to .place on the top anotherfiat, the enclosing walls for said ar- 70 ticles being supported by thetwo flats and the whole forming a packing unit. It is the prime objectof this invention to improve upon the flats now used .in commerce and toprovide a process for forming such improved flats.

In the past it has been proposed to make such flats of cardboard orheavy paper by stamping the supporting projections out of said material.Since neither cardboard nor paper will stretch the obvious result wasthat the material would break at the points of deformation, and would beuseless for the purpose intended. Furthermore, the fibres of paperhaving set once in a definite position in the original manufacture ofthe paper always tend to return to normal position after deformation,thereby causing the projections on the flatto assume irregularpositions. For these reasons none of the 30 early devices were, toapplicants knowledge, commercially successful or commonly used. A laterdevelopment of the art to overcome some of .the above mentioneddeficiencies,

was to manufacture said flats from loosefibres such as pulp, by pressingthem in sheet form into the desired shape, While damp, and then drying.But though this development overcame some of the objections to earlierdevices, it was open to objections of a different nature although fullyas serious.

The main objections to this type of flat are that in the first placethereis not suflicient cohesion between the fibres to withstand anysubstantial pressure, and secondly, and of greater weight, that pulphaving a very strong aflinity for water, they rapidly absorb moisturefrom the cool damp air to which they are usually'subjected, becominglimp and useless for the purpose intended.

To overcome these objections as well as objections to earlier devices,applicant has formed a flat of expansible paper, an example of which isthe well-known crepe paper. This type of paper contains numerous smallcrinkles which, if any stress is put upon the mechanisms for carryingout the paper, straighten out, giving greater surface to the paper. Itmust be understood that the paper tself does not stretch but that theincrease 1n size is due to the smoothing out of of said crinkles.

In practising this invention a plurality of layers of such paper aresuperimposed and united by a water-proof glue, for which purpose asolution of sodium silicate is preferred for the reason that it is verystable, sets very hard and is flexible when set. After the layers ofpaper are so bound and before the glue is set they are subjected to anembossing operation. Due to the fact that the glue is still damp, thevarious lay ers are movable relative to each other whereby allowance ismade for necessary slippage between layers when making curved surfaces.In addition to this, the strains to which the paper is subjected duringthe embossing operation are taken care otby the expansibility of thepaper, as polnted out above, and the finished article presents asubstantially smooth appearance. The thickness of paper used is governedby the weight of flat desired. All the layers may be of the samethickness or the middle layers may be of greater thickness than theouter layers, but whatever be the thickness, the paper must be creped ormade expansible by some other method, or the product will beunsatisfactory.

The flat so produced is a uniform article having no weak points, is notaffected by moisture, has suflicient strength to withstand a substantialpressure, and is at the same time elastic enough to give under apressure slightly below the crushing force of the fragile articlessupported thereon. The importance of such an article in commerce can beeasily recognized when the millions of dozens of eggs and other fragilearticles shipped yearly is taken into account together with the greatloss incurred through breakage from rough handling. The process by 100which the flats are formed and the article itself are illustrated in theaccompanying. drawings in which Fig. 1 is a side view of an arrangementof rocess.

fl Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the at.

Fig. 3 is a section through a packin unit in use slightly enlarged toshow the p ies of the fiat.

Referring to the drawings in detail and particularly to Fig. 1, A, B andC are rollers carrying a supply of paper from which the various stripsare let off and entrained over idlers not numbered. The strip fromroller A passes through a pair of ore ing rollers 3- and 4, by which ismeant r0 lers that are so constructed that they break and gather thefibres both longitudinally and transversely of the web, thus supplying asurplus of paper so that when the raised portions are embossed the paperis not fractured. In like manner, the paper from roll C passes betweencreping rollers 5 and 6. The paper from roll B being the middle layer,after passing through creping rollers 1 and 2 passes around a roller 25in a vat 26 filled with sodium silicate solution of desired consistency,and from there passes through rollers 24 which remove the excess ofadhesive which drops back into the tank.

-Rollers 22 and 23 are pressing rollers through which the strips passsimultaneously 7 and 8 are feed rollers which feed the combined stripsfrom rollers 22 and 23 to platen 11. 13 is a knife reciprocated byeccentric 17 on the shaft of disc 19 which is in contact with thedriving disc 20. Mounted adjacent the knife 13 is a stop 12 which bindsthe strips against the platen 11 on the downward motion of the knife 13thereby stopping their movement until the knife has cut off the desiredlength. Rollers 9 and 10 are feed rollers which move the paper ontoplate 15 which is the female member of a die, and which is heated bysteam or other common means. The male member of the die 14 isreciprocated by an eccentric 16 on the shaft of the disc 18 which isconnected to the driving disc 20. 21 is a conveyor for removing thefinished article.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, it will be seen that the finished flat ismade up of three plies of material, although it is not limited to thisnumber, and is corrugated transversely and longitudinally, thecorrugations 29 being pressed downwardly and intersecting to formsquares 30 of which there are usually thirty-six to a flat. Centrallylocated in each square is a convex portion 31 pressed upwardly from thefiat. In the center of each convex portion is a concavity 32 formed bypressing the convex port-ion in the opposite direction. Returning to theprocess it is to be noted that the speed with which the paper passesthrough the machine is substantially rapid so that the glue will nothave begun to set before the laminated structure is placed on the table15. The parts of the machine are so timed that as soon as the paperrests on the female member 15 the male member 14 is brought down upon itpressing it into the depressions in 15, at which stage the heat of themember 15 dries the glue and stiifens the flat in the shape of the mold.

When packing globulararticles as shown resting in the corrugations. Thenanother flat is placed on the top in inverted position so that theconcavities of its squares engage the upper portion of theglobulararticles and its corrugations engage the upper edges of the cell walls.In this way a packin unit is formed, all walls of which are locke frommovement in all directions, and in which the globular articles arefirmly supported in spaced relation both to the walls of the outercasing and to each other. It is further obvious that by the use of thisflat, because of its firmness and immunity to injury by atmosphericconditions, the articles will arrive at their destination in the sameshape in which they are packed regardless of rough handling, dampweather or exposure to water as such either in the form of rain orleakage. A further advantage of these flats is that they are very lightthereby reducing shipping expenses both when in use and when shippedempty in nested relation.

Having thus fully described the invention as practiced, to whichdescription, however, the invention is not limited, it only being thepreferred form and capable of various modifications and alterationswithin the scope of the invention, what is claimed as new is 1. As anarticle of manufacture an egg flat having intersecting corrugations andcomprising a plurality of plies of expansible paper adhesively securedin superlmposed relation.

2. As an article of manufacture an egg flat comprising a plurality ofplies of expansible paper adhesively secured in superimposed relationand having downwardly directed longitudinal and transverse corrugationsforming seats for the side walls of egg cells and upwardly directedconvex portions each having a central concavity to receive the end of anegg.

3. As. an article of manufacture an egg fiat having upwardly directedconvex portions each having a central concavity to receive the end of anegg, said flat being composed of a plurality of plies of expansiblepaper adhesively secured in superlmposed relation.

' In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

NELSON E. FUNK.

